Saturday, February 27, 2010

When Garcia was recovering from being shot the entire team protected her, but they weren’t getting anywhere in finding the guy who shot her. Rossi (with lots of criticism from the fans) decided to force her to face facts and focus. From that point on, she shed her victim skin and fought back the only way she could—electronically, She hacked into her own system, found the UNSUB, and Garcia got herself a man who was half in love with her before he even met her, because of her crazy, mad computer skills.

The 5th Annual Festival celebrating Italian Cinema, Fashion and Art in America, is produced by the Capri in the World Institute in association with CIM Group-USA, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Institute of Culture in Los Angeles, with special partners Eni Spa and Rai Trade Spa, all under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italian Embassy in the USA and the Campania Region of Italy.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Maggie fought back against unseen forces trying to find her way through the warehouse maze from hell and just when we thought she had lost, the BAU rescued her! She was still feisty enough to want to see the face of the UNSUB and to let him know that she won after all.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

We admired Patrick because although he didn’t know what was going to happen to him, he was determined to overcome his fear of swimming and that takes courage. He thought he was doing something to make him stronger as a person and instead ended up in the hands of a serial killer.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Mosley LaneSeason 5, Episode 16 - Airs: 3/03/2010THE BAU TEAM INVESTIGATES A CHILD ABDUCTION WITH SIMILARITIES TO A CASE THAT HAS HAUNTED ONE MOTHER FOR EIGHT YEARS, ON "CRIMINAL MINDS," WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3

We loved Bobbi because she was a fighter and never gave up. When she couldn’t run anymore, she decided to turn and fight. She was tough and had a “never say die” (literally) attitude. She was smart and she turned the tables on the UNSUBS who were hunting her. The prey became the hunter.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I made the trek across the pond alone to see Mandy Patinkin star in the new play Compulsion by Rinne Groff at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Lady Guinevere was supposed to join me for a girl’s weekend, but Arthur and Lancelot weren’t getting along, so she had to stay home to keep them from killing one another.

First, some background:

This play was co-produced by The Yale Repertory Theatre, The Public Theatre in New York, and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California and after its run at the Yale Repertory Theatre, will go on to be staged at both the Public Theatre and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. It was directed by Oskar Eustis and stars Hannah Cabell as Miss Mermin (a Doubleday Editor) and Mrs. Silver (Sid’s wife); Mandy Patinkin as Sid Silver; and Stephen Barker Turner as Mr. Thomas, Mr. Harris, Mr. Ferris (all Doubleday editors or lawyers) and Mr. Matzliach (an Israeli friend and producer). The puppeteers, yes there were puppets, were Emily DeCola, Liam Hurley and Eric Wright.

The play is a fictionalized account of the real journalist and novelist, Meyer Levin, who wrote a book entitled Compulsion about the Leopold and Loeb case. It was the first documentary or non-fiction novel, one in which Levin follows the facts of the case and but changes names and uses a fictional reporter as the narrator of the story. This style of writing was later emulated by Truman Capote, among others.

The play, however, is not about the Leopold and Loeb case. It is about Anne Frank. You see, Meyer Levin was one the first American journalists to become aware of the existences of Anne Frank’s diary. He was also one of the first to realize that the diary would be a huge literary and dramatic success. He wanted to be the one to write the stage play, but his play was rejected for the one that was ultimately brought to the stage with huge success (Tony awards, Pulitzer Prize, etc.). He battled for 30 years to have his version of the play performed. It became his Compulsion.

The play:

I had read a few reviews of the play before I saw it, some good, some not so good, but the New York Times liked it and Mandy’s performance, which was pretty amazing for them to like him (they usually don’t like him), so I had great expectations. I am happy to say the play lived up to them.

The play takes place between 1951 and 1981 and is located in New York City, Fire Island, New York, and Israel.

The play begins with Sid Silver, Mandy’s character, sitting at a table reading a manuscript. On the other side of the stage is a puppet in Anne Frank’s likeness who is writing in her diary. She is voiced in almost all instances by Hannah Cabell, except in a later dream sequence when she is voiced by Mandy, which I first thought was weird, but then it made sense. Some reviewers did not like or understand the puppets, but I liked them – they played Anne, and later on the characters in various versions of the plays adapted from Anne’s diary. I guess you could liken them to an aside, which in theatre language is where the character talks directly to the audience to give them commentary, information, background and backstory. When the puppets portrayed the characters in the play adapted from Anne’s book, Sid stands to the side and reads news clippings of various reviews of the play throughout the world.

From the very beginning, you see that Sid Silver doesn’t have the firmest grasp on reality. He is a very volatile personality and is so single-minded in his quest that he misunderstands, doesn’t listen carefully, is quick to fly off the handle, and concocts wild conspiracies against him. The playwright kept this volatility in mind when she planned that Mr. Thomas, Mr. Harris, Mr. Ferris, and Mr. Matzliach would be played by the same actor. There is a running joke throughout the play that when Sid meets or interacts with Mr. Thomas, Mr. Harris or Mr. Ferris, he mixes them up and thinks they are one another. This is a great release for the audience, because most of the play is very intense (is anyone surprised that Mandy selected an intense play? LOL), so it is good to have a little comic relief here and there.

Even though Sid Silver is somewhat of a buffoon and an ass, he is a sympathetic character who, according to the play, really did get shafted by Doubleday through their miscommunications (their many, “Oh, didn’t we tell you?” revelations), and their attempts to whitewash the “Jewishness” of the subject matter which Silver, and rightly so, thought was criminal. However, his obsession about the play cost him his relationship with Doubleday, his lawyers, his agent, the producers of the play, Otto Frank (Anne’s father) and nearly cost him his wife and family.

After many altercations, lawsuits and a suicide threat from his wife, he apparently settled his differences with all parties and the family moved to Israel in the mid-1960’s. I say “apparently” because we soon find out that behind his wife’s back, he has asked Mr. Matzliach, an Israeli producer, for his opinion of his version of the play. The next scene is the dream scene, in which Mrs. Silver and Anne (the puppet) talk. Anne, voiced by Mandy, tells Mrs. Silver that Sid was still obsessed by her and assures her that if they had a reading of the play in their home then he would be satisfied and his obsession stilled. It works because you realize that Sid is speaking through Anne in Mrs. Silver’s dream, trying to convince his wife that this will be enough. It wasn’t.

After the reading, he convinces Mr. Matzliach to produce the play, even though he did not have the legal rights to the material. After the play is staged by a production company affiliated with the Israeli Army (I know I don’t have that completely right, but without the script to refer to, what can I do?), to rave reviews, more outbursts and lawsuits ensue. There is one particularly hysterical conspiracy theory that Silver comes up with here. Lillian Hellman was the lover of one of the original producers, and Sid always thought that she had wanted to be the one to write the play, and he blamed her for getting him kicked off the project many times throughout the play. In this scene, he blames her for his agent not getting his letters about producing the play in Israel by making this connection: Lillian Hellman’s publisher had offices in the same building as his agent. So, Lillian must have snuck in after hours and broke into his agent’s office and stole his letters! So funny!

I really haven’t talked about the character of Miss Mermin, and since she is an essential character, especially at the end, I should do so. First, the Mr. Harris, Mr. Ferris and Mr. Thomas characters were all kind of bombastic characters who were the ones to give Sid bad news throughout the play. They were the foils who were fighting against Sid in one way or another. At the beginning of the play, Miss Mermin was a young, rookie editor at Doubleday, who was anxious to help Sid and see that he got treated fairly. Throughout the play, she tried to help him until he finally antagonized her enough that she kicked him to the curb. She had a rising career and a new husband, and wanted to be rid of the drama that was Sid.

In the penultimate scene, it is 1981 and Sid visits Miss Mermin at her apartment. There is a literary party going on and she says he can’t come in and that Lillian Hellman had left already. She gives him some grief about his latest letter to the Pulitzer committee asking them to take back the prize they awarded the Anne Frank play, 27 years ago! Sid suddenly takes her in his arms and kisses her, a really good, long kiss. She breaks away from the kiss, considers a moment and then asks him if he was dead, and we realize it is a dream scene. He says he must nearly be dead if he, a married man, is kissing a married woman who is not his wife. She said wasn’t married anymore and was Miss Mermin again. Sid takes her in his arms and tells her that he was really in Israel, surrounded by his loving family, breathing his last breath. Miss Mermin opens the door to her apartment and invites him in.

Once inside, it is apparent that Sid has died. He meets Anne and they talk about his love for her. She mentions how he hurt her father with all his accusations and lawsuits. He apologizes and she goes back to her table and chair and writes in her diary while Sid gazes at her adoringly.

It wasn’t all intense drama, though. Besides the running joke about Mr. Thomas, Mr. Harris and Mr. Ferris, interspersed here and there were domestic scenes with Sid and his wife. In one scene they are at a beach house and he is at his desk writing his draft of the play and she comes back from a party and is a little drunk. They exchange some witty sexual banter and canoodling that made me wish that I was the actress up on stage (sigh, fans self)! In another scene, after they are in Israel, they go off to bed to make love (offstage) and Sid shuffles/dances off the stage with a wicked little grin on his face.

The author of the play, Rinne Groff is a Yale alumnus. She said she has always identified with Anne Frank. She is Dutch, Jewish, and has relatives in Amsterdam who she has visited frequently and has been to the house where the Frank family hid during World War II.

I also read in an interview with Mandy that after he read the play, he really wanted to be a part of the production, saying that he thought it would be illegal if they staged the play without him!

Knowing she was to die, Haley still found it in herself to tell her ex-husband that love was the most important thing and she wanted him to tell Jack about how they met and fell in love. Hotch, despite what happened to him, is still standing, still trying to make a difference. Jack, absolutely adorable, worked the case with his dad.

The following article about Paget Brewster appreared today in The Daily Telegraph, a news organization in Australia. In it, she describes the scary situation that led her to be facinated with the subject matter that Criminal Minds deals with. It also gives us a little insight, including her self-depricating take on dating, to the wonderful actress that brings Emily Prentiss to our television sets.

Mosley LaneSeason 5, Episode 16 - Airs: 3/03/2010THE BAU TEAM INVESTIGATES A CHILD ABDUCTION WITH SIMILARITIES TO A CASE THAT HAS HAUNTED ONE MOTHER FOR EIGHT YEARS, ON "CRIMINAL MINDS," WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3

Monday, February 22, 2010

Jind Allah was an especially nasty UNSUB who basically wanted to destroy every human being in the United States. Was it any wonder he was “detained” at Guantanamo? His lies thwarted the team for awhile but through the fancy footwork of Garcia, Prentiss and Reid they figured out his lies and enabled Gideon to manipulate him into betraying himself. He thought he was pulling one over on Gideon so it was so especially satisfying to see the smug, superior look on his face be replaced by one of fear and confusion because Gideon ended up being the one who pulled one over on him.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Vincent Perotta, portrayed by Patrick Kilpatrick, in Natural Born Killer (S1, Ep 8)Vincent Perotta was a serial killer with the perfect job – he was a hit man. He only killed men though (killing his father over and over again), but he was thrown off his game when there was a woman at his last job – he brutally tortured and murdered the men, but the woman, he killed her quickly with no torture. This brought him to the attention of the BAU and once they had him in custody, we got a tantalizing piece of Hotch backstory – his father physically abused him! We also met Agent Kramer from the Baltimore Field Office and found out that the actor portraying him was once under consideration for the role of Hotch. WTF?!?!

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WHO WE ARE

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Criminal Minds Round Table. When we were positing names for this blog, and Sir Bedivere suggested Criminal Minds Round Table, we knew immediately that was the perfect name for our blog.

It fit in so many ways.

Many fans, and Ed Bernero (Criminal Minds' former Showrunner and Executive Producer) himself, compare the show and its characters to The Arthurian Legend and the Knights of the Round Table. Mr. Bernero even went so far as to say that he knew that the stories had to be “Arthurian” to appeal to the most people. The team meets to brief cases at a round table, and there are many parallels between our BAU team and the Knights and other Arthurian characters.

In addition, a Round Table discussion is what we want to have here about any and all topics Criminal Minds-related. In a Round Table discussion, each participant has equal status and equal time to present views. And finally, since this is going to be a group effort amongst a group of Criminal Minds fans, we are going to take turns around the table, with each of us posting about the show, our favorite characters and our favorite actors on the show.